Latin American Struggles| Battlefields, Experiences, Debates: Latin American Struggles and Digital Media Resistance — Introduction (original) (raw)
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Battlefields, experiences, debates: Latin American struggles and digital media resistance
2015
The role of digital communication within contemporary struggles in Latin America has not received the consideration it deserves, especially internationally in English-language scholarship. The articles in this Special Section aim to fill this gap and provide key guidelines to navigate the multifaceted tapestry of digital media resistance in Latin America. We illustrate that in the Latin American scenario digital technologies have been appropriated in multiple, even contradictory, ways to fight against inequalities, challenge highly concentrated media ecologies, create counterhegemonic spaces, and build bridges among organizations. Moreover, we point out that in order to understand the communicative dynamics of contemporary Latin American struggles it is necessary to establish a dialogue between diverse traditions and conceptual frameworks. We conclude by summarizing the arguments and reviewing the significance of the contributions to this Special Section.
In this conversation, professor and leading scholar on global social movements and contemporary protest Geoffrey Pleyers maps and critically reflects on the main battlefields of Latin American struggles, from resistance over land dispossession and extractivism to conflicts over information control and the quality of democracy, from the battle against the neoliberal privatization of public education to the struggles for justice against impunity and violence. He then situates the role of digital media within a multifaceted scenario where powerful mainstream media and political elites are colluded, independent journalists are threatened and struggle to get their voice heard, and governments invest immense resources to spy on citizens and to influence public opinion. While recognizing the importance of the Internet to pursue social change in the Latin American context, Pleyers urges us to look at the broader social, political, and economic picture in order to understand the extent of the transformations on the continent.
In this conversation, Bernardo Gutiérrez examines the multifaceted roles played by digital media technologies in the processes of resistance and emancipation of several Latin American countries, with a particular focus on Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. Relying on his extensive experience as a journalist and activist, and on the preliminary findings of his new project funded by Oxfam, an international confederation to find solutions to poverty, an injustice around the world, he argues that the similarities among these new mobilizations have to be looked for in their technopolitical architecture and in the forms of organization-action they assume, rather than in their demands, shared ideologies, and grievances.
Review of “Digital Activism, Community Media, and Sustainable Communication in Latin America”.
Journal of Cyberspace Studies, 2021
Latin America has faced political, social, and economic protests planned by different actors in recent years. People are looking for social justice since they consider states have infringed their rights. This awakening of the people manifested through systematic protests has led some political analysts to call it the “Latin America’s Spring”. 2019 was the beginning of serial riots in Puerto Rico, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Thus, media communities in this region have played a key role and emerged as new digital social actors. Most of them have taken part in manifestations through digital activism.
Social Movements in Latin America
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3418/1518 In this conversation, Geoffrey Pleyers maps and critically reflects on the main battlefields of Latin American struggles, from resistance over land dispossession and extractivism to conflicts over information control and the quality of democracy, from the battle against the neoliberal privatization of public education to the struggles for justice against impunity and violence. He then situates the role of digital media within a multifaceted scenario where powerful mainstream media and political elites are colluded, independent journalists are threatened and struggle to get their voice heard, and governments invest immense resources to spy on citizens and to influence public opinion. While recognizing the importance of the Internet to pursue social change in the Latin American context, Pleyers urges us to look at the broader social, political, and economic picture in order to understand the extent of the transformations on the continent.
lasa.international.pitt.edu
This quantitative and qualitative analysis of Latin American activists' survey responses examined whether and how, in the face of the digital divide, online social media can be used to work toward social change and to strengthen democracy. Analysis showed respondents saw lack of Internet access and lack of technological skills as some of the top challenges to incorporating social media in activism. Still, they did not see the Internet as threatening democracy and social justice. Rather, analysis suggests social media are creating alternative public spheres, opening dialogic, safe, global, and digital spaces that promote public discourse and participation, both of which are foundational for democracy. Social Change and Social Media: Latin American Activists' Use of Digital Tools in the Face of the Digital Divide Literature Review and Theoretical Framework Counterpublics and activist publics Whether mobile phones, YouTube, blogs or social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, new digital tools theoretically open up what Fraser (1990) referred to as alternative public spheres, allowing for online horizontal communication that overcomes traditional boundaries of time and space (Castells, 2001). Habermas (1989) posited the idea of a single public spherewhether physical or mediated-in which people could come together to rationally debate, discuss and reach a consensus on issues of shared public concern. Such a space, he contended, was fundamental for true democracy. Habermas' idealized conceptualization, however, fails to take into account dissent, protesters, social movements, or anything that might run counter to the dominant public voices. Fraser (1990) suggested that Habermas' notion operated according to more procedural, than substantive, principles of equality. Noting that this idea of a singular public sphere excluded women, minorities, and other non-elites, she introduced the existence of multiple counter-public spheres where subordinated groups could come together to express themselves on their own terms and work toward consensus and achievement of their own goals. Such "counterpublics" allow for multiple competing discourses, rather than one hegemonic discourse. Similar to counterpublics, Wahl-Jorgenson (2001) offered the notion of an "activist public," that focuses on "the achievement of activist goals as the locus of public action and interaction" (p. 308). And unlike counterpublics, activist publics can be subordinate or dominant as they struggle to achieve political goals. Because the discourse of the activist public is mostly excluded from mainstream media for going against their "normative visions" (Wahl-Jorgenson, 2001, p. 308), alternative media have become the mediated site of activist publics and counterpublics. In this digital information age, the Internet, and SNS in particular, are easily viewed as the latest incarnation of counterpublics where activists can communicate freely. The question, however, is whether, in light of the digital divide, Latin American activists are able to use social media and the Internet to create their own alternative spaces for horizontal, democratic communication and social change.
Networks, Movements and Technopolitics in Latin America. Critical Analysis and Current Challenges
Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
This edited collection presents original and compelling research about contemporary experiences of Latin American movements and politics in several countries. The book proposes a theoretical framework that conceptualises different mediation processes that emerge between cyberdemocracy and the emancipation practices of new social movements. Additionally, this volume presents some Latin American practices and experiences that are autonomously and by using self-management–creating other identities and social spaces on the margins of and against the neoliberal system through the use of digital technology. This book will be of great interest to scholars of media and social movements studies as well as of contemporary politics.
United and fragmented: Communication and media studies in Latin America
Scholars have lamented the state of fragmentation in communication scholarship for it undermines its consolidation as a distinct and coherent field of study. My interest in this article is to assess whether this diagnosis applies to communication and media studies in Latin America. My argument is that the field remains united yet fragmented in the region. Unlike communication scholarship in the United States and some European countries, it is grounded in common theoretical and analytical roots laid down in the 1960s and 1970s. Foundational studies produced made original and important contributions to the field at large, most notably, the study of media/cultural imperialism, innovations in communication/media policies, and the intersection between media and cultural dynamics. Since then, the field has become consolidated and expanded with the proliferation of research and universities and the development of various lines of research. The result is the empirical fragmentation of the field in multiple, parallel lines of research. Although fragmentation has produced rich empirical studies on myriad issues, it has yet to produce path-breaking, ambitious arguments that once were distinctive of the "Latin American" tradition of communication and media scholarship. What is needed, I argue, is to adopt an analytical position that places theoretical questions at the center, engages with arguments produced in different settings, and participates in broad debates in the global community of communication and media scholars.